What Americans do next will be very telling, both of their values and the new Administration.

So far, it looks like you're doing better than with Katrina. And this very day I have seen individual American-Latinos put hundreds of dollars (yes, each) into charity boxes.

I have a colleague that works in Port-au-Prince. He was in DC the day the quake happened. No news of his house there though or his friends that were staying in it while he was away.

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Not America's problem to fix everyone elses.

Our country is flat broke, completely broke.

Take notice of this next statement...

DO NOT GIVE MONEY TO THIS TRAGEDY.

Money won't fix this tragedy. Please donate your time, household goods, toiletries, cleaning supplies, work at a church in helping to prepare shipments.

Buy food, soap, canned goods.

Giving money is the worst thing possible, and the tsunami from a few years ago just revealed a couple months ago that A HALF A BILLION DOLLARS was spent, gone, invisible. Greed is what took that money away from people because everyone thinks money fixes these problems.

Every tragedy I've heard of spawns the stories months/years later where millions of dollars was funneled into a direction of greed.

Notice how "easy" they've made it to give money? Who is policing this? No one. No dollar for dollar donation exists.

I'm doing my part for this event...built a website for those who need it for locating family members.

Ian,
I dont really know the geo-political ramifications
or whose door step this is on.. or who this is going to reflect on
I think it reflects on the whole world....

Haite has been a hell hole for hundreds of years...
and wether you can blame the USA for all the ills of the world is really stretching it here.......

I honestly feel this world would sink back into the dark ages very quickly if
it were not for the USA and England.....

greed and corruption is a way of life down there and always has been...

I sincerely hope Obama does do a better job with Hati than
England has done takeing care of Ireland and their troubles over the centuries....
Ireland..... oh yea ..... I think thats in your hemisphere.........

Either way ....I say a prayer tonight and
think of my kids safe in their homes....

I just reminded you that these are your neighbors and it is now your civil responsibility to help them on humanitarian grounds.

Which it appears you are doing, as per my original post.

Indeed, America appears to be doing more for Haiti than it did for itself post-Katrina - for which the Republican party should never be allowed to return to power. If a controlling political Party is so incompetant that it cannot prevent its own citizens from needlessly dying after a crisis, then it really should be put to rest. Rest In Peace GOP. Let us never forget.

Money won't fix this tragedy. Please donate your time, household goods, toiletries, cleaning supplies, work at a church in helping to prepare shipments.

Buy food, soap, canned goods.

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Well, I think they need medicines and heavy lifting equipment to get them out of the rubble before we worry about what they are gonna eat. And you may have noticed that the airport is just a single runway and the cranes at the port no longer work. Which means getting food, soap and canned goods in at the moment could be a little tricky.

As always, cash will win so the people on the ground can decide what they need. And I will be writing a check.

Of course. That's how a half a billion dollars ended up in the hands of others, instead of the tsunami victims who needed it.

Giving money is about as good as giving money to the drug cartel, so they keep at least one street drug free, and that won't happen.

I could dig deep and find that every tragic event there is money gained into the wrong hands....with people on tv crying, in pain, dying...months and sometimes years later.....and where did your money go?

You can't trace it, you can't prove where it went, you trusted 'something' that sounded realistic and those who have it, don't police themselves.

Let the government handle the medical equipment front. In two days the stench of the dead is going to be horrific and it is going to be first priority to those of the injured and living that are going to need clean water and toiletries...something you're not prioritizing.

I think you should give up your toilet, both of them as a sacrifice, Ian.

Money does not fix tragedy. Participation on the volunteer front goes the distance. People need to go there and help. The airports offer free travel to those who are going to help those in disaster zones. Did you know that?

Indeed, America appears to be doing more for Haiti than it did for itself post-Katrina - for which the Republican party should never be allowed to return to power. If a controlling political Party is so incompetant that it cannot prevent its own citizens from needlessly dying after a crisis, then it really should be put to rest. Rest In Peace GOP. Let us never forget.

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Amen to that. And it wasn't just N.O. or even LA. There were massive failures in AL and MS. It was the persistent flooding and concentration of numbers that made N.O. the easy focal point because it was in the extremis.

The GOP forgot what the "can do" American spirit was about. Instead they believe Americans and their govt. can't do anything right. When they got elected they set about to prove it--a self fulfilling prophecy. The lesson is never elect anyone to a job that they believe can never be properly managed. Instead elect folks who believe the job can be done.

I could go on for awhile talking of experiencing conservative incompetence during hurricane evacuations, and their inability to accept any responsibility or help that was offered for seeing to the basic needs of the affected, but I won't. I'm not sure when the "can do" conservatives were replaced by all these "can't do" types, but we are worse off for it.

I just reminded you that these are your neighbors and it is now your civil responsibility to help them on humanitarian grounds.

Which it appears you are doing, as per my original post.

Indeed, America appears to be doing more for Haiti than it did for itself post-Katrina - for which the Republican party should never be allowed to return to power. If a controlling political Party is so incompetant that it cannot prevent its own citizens from needlessly dying after a crisis, then it really should be put to rest. Rest In Peace GOP. Let us never forget.

.

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What reason could you have that would make you have to "remind" us...

Lets see England over extend its self trying to help...like we did in WW2 when England wasn't our "neighbor" so to speak...

The US always helps...like no other Nation in the world...and you know that...there is no other nation in the world that has our track record...at least not that I know of...why would you think that we wouldn't help now...

you just wanted to use peoples suffering to take a swipe at the Republicans...thats all...

Indeed, America appears to be doing more for Haiti than it did for itself post-Katrina - for which the Republican party should never be allowed to return to power. If a controlling political Party is so incompetant that it cannot prevent its own citizens from needlessly dying after a crisis, then it really should be put to rest. Rest In Peace GOP. Let us never forget.

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No one was ready for Katrina...if the Dems were in power at the time they would have taken the criticism...and the same thing would have happened...none of the previous administrations, regardless of party, had anything in place to deal with a natural disaster of that magnatude...since then some things have changed....we could talk all day about who's responsibility the response, or lack of it, to Katrina was but the important thing is to learn from it and try and put things in place so the next time the response will be better regardless of the party in charge at the time...

Like I said be for...neither party had prepared for a Katrina so for you to say...

If a controlling political Party is so incompetent that it cannot prevent its own citizens from needlessly dying after a crisis, then it really should be put to rest. Rest In Peace GOP. Let us never forget.

No one was ready for Katrina...if the Dems were in power at the time they would have taken the criticism...and the same thing would have happened...none of the previous administrations, regardless of party, had anything in place to deal with a natural disaster of that magnatude.

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The biggest failure with Katrina was that the state and city wasn't prepared. For first responders the state of Florida has taken care of itself quite well and even when Andrew and to a lesser extent Charlie tore through the state the State took care of initial response and relied on the federal gov't (NG and monetarily) only for assistance.

I see no good coming out of it but 3 million Haitians being made dependent on it for their survival. And now the $100 million OBAMA! has pledged will go for nothing until there is law and order down there and there is an end to the widespread corruption. Without military control I doubt either will happen anytime soon.

I've seen a couple documentaries on Katrina. I visited New Orleans a year after Katrina. The city and state officials were much more responsible for the lack of government help not being available than anything else; especially federal help. The orders to evacuate and to mobilize city and state resources were way too late and so was the call for federal help by the state, which was the only one that could ask for help or set up the conditions where the federal government could help legally. And of course Bush and the Republicans were and still are being falsely blamed by uninformed partisan people and the OBAMA! lovin' drive by media.

Lets see England over extend its self trying to help...like we did in WW2 when England wasn't our "neighbor" so to speak...

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Two words....Pearl Harbor.

That means it was your War as well. Or were you ready just to let that one go? I don't recall seeing any American troops in Europe before that.

No one was ready for Katrina...

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$100 million of Federal Funds announced two days after would have helped. Just like for Haiti.

They are projecting 50,000 + dead and you guys are arguing the politics? Like humanitarian efforts are a right or left thing.

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All of this help IS political.

The city and state officials were much more responsible for the lack of government help not being available than anything else; especially federal help...And of course Bush and the Republicans were and still are being falsely blamed by uninformed partisan people and the OBAMA! lovin' drive by media.

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Glad you think Americans suffering on someone's watch is OK. Your Government has an easy time of pleasing its voters doesn't it? People die and you're lining up to vote them in again.

Why are you always slamming the US...to the exclusion of other countrys like your own...or is England doing a bang up job...How many ships, planes, and troops are on their way there now from England...

The death there before this event was disturbing due to the corrupt government and its dismissal of its own people.

That number above is going to go way up as the ones currently there are not prepared to deal with such dangerous health risks involving the death of others.

The fast burials are done to prevent the spread of disease.

Before this happened, 1 in 10 had access to potable water, water that you can drink.

How in the world do you go into a situation like this, help care for the sick and dying, then at some point reverse your course and allow the existence of these people to return back to where they was...because the billions of dollars that was pumped into this country by the United States has not afforded much in the times prior.